The New York Times writes how Emoji, long popular among cellphone users in Asia, is enjoying some mainstream success.

... emoji, which are the more elaborate cousins of emoticons -- those creative combinations of colons, parentheses and other punctuation that people use to drop a facial expression into a text message or e-mail.

But unlike emoticons, emoji don't require tilting your head sideways to make sense of the image. They are a kind of pictorial alphabet stored on a phone that can be displayed in place of the regular keyboard, making it easy to tap out a visual message.

Outside their native Japan, emoji have been available to in-the-know smartphone owners for some time via add-on applications. But now they may be on the verge of going mainstream in the United States, thanks in part to Apple's latest update to its iPhone software. The latest version, iOS 5, comes with an installed library of emoji that can be turned on as an "international keyboard" in the device's settings.

"Text as a medium is particularly dull when it comes to expressing emotions," Professor Sundar said. "Emoticons open the door a little, but emoji opens it even further. They play the role that nonverbal communication, like hand gestures, does in conversation but on a cellphone."

Whimsical Texting Icons Get a Shot at Success